Daily News

UK – Employers may not cope with auto enrolment

According to a survey of over 200 HR, payroll and financial professionals, only 3% of respondents expect their employer to take on an additional person to meet their auto enrolment responsibilities.

The findings by Ceridian, a UK HCM technology and service provider, also found that a further 3% expect their employer to hire an extra two to four staff.

The 2012 pension reform legislation placed new legal duties on employers to automatically enrol certain workers into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. Up to 10 million people are expected to be eventually enrolled in what has been hailed as one of the biggest pension revolutions in recent years.

While firms face more administrative burdens, extra staff and the right use of technology could help. David Woodward from Ceridian said that many organisations are trying to manage without investing in the right technology and think they can achieve this with no additional resource.

“Worryingly, nearly a third of respondents believe additional resource will be required but fear it will not be allowed. In the majority of organisations, the HR function owns the auto enrolment project at 43%, followed by payroll at 24%,” he said.

Mr Woodward added that payroll is best placed to determine when an employee should be automatically enrolled into a chosen pension scheme and make a contribution. “The successful programmes we have seen, therefore, actively involved payroll as a major stakeholder, while ensuring HR, finance and IT are all actively involved,” he said.

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